Jerry was next. The sickening crack of the bones in his neck giving way echoed dully in the dark room they'd found themselves in; his glasses clattered to the floor, crunching beneath the weight of his body as he felt to his knees. Vines contorted his entire face, arching into his nose, pressing into his eyes. He didn't even have a moment to call for help; instead, her dearest companion fell face-first onto the ground with a wet, muffled whoosh as his final breath escaped through his nose with a whistling wheeze.
Sydney never stood a chance. Sasha watched as the vines overtook her friend. They ripped at her hair, dug needily into her ears, eyes, nose, mouth; puncturing her skin ruthlessly as they dragged her down, down, down into the bloody, vine-covered muck. Terrified brown eyes were soon dull and lifeless. In no time at all the vines had consumed Syd until there was nothing left but a silence that clawed at Sasha's mind.
Robert. Impossibly huge, a walking shield in a sense. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and Robert was no different. Vines wrapped around his thick neck, his broad chest, his impossibly wide shoulders. Ruthless, relentless, neverending, unforgiving. Putrid crimson blossoms burst from his ears and his nostrils as he choked on the satiny petals.
Clerise, Clerise. The redhead was the final one to fall. The vines returned with a furious vengeance, wrapping tightly around the arms, legs and waist of the other Life hunter. Sasha merely stood there in a panic as the vines seemed to twist and contort the acrobat's lithe body in ways that a body shouldn't be moved, shouldn't be twisted. An audible crack of bone as her femur splintered through her leg; another shattering sound as her ulna speared through muscle and skin. Tattered, beaten, broken.
All of them dead and gone. All while they'd stood there, protecting her, and for what? The shadows moved in, pulsing in waves of colorless, unreflective black. They were eerily silent as they reached forward, petals yawning soundlessly, closer and closer and --
"Get up, whirligirl!"
Sasha shot up in bed as the knocking grew more insistant. She peered at the clock; glanced around the room with half-crazed eyes. Just a dream. Just a dream… and yet… the sense of deja vu was entirely too overwhelming. In fact, it seemed to be more than deja vu - this was exactly how it had all happened in the dream she'd just woken from. No, it couldn't be, could it? If it was, then Clerise would call out again, just like --
"Sasha! Whirligirl, do not make me come in there after you!"
It.. how was this happening? Was it another chance to make things right? Or another chance to watch them all die again? Deep in her heart she knew that she could change things. She could change the way this all played out, because she'd seen how it had all happened before.
"I'm coming!"
-----
"No," Sasha whispered, reaching out to grasp Candace's wrist. "Not that way, please not that way. This way, trust me."
Trust me.
The floor gave way beneath them, beneath Sydney and Robert, Jerry, Candace and Clerise. Sasha had been able to move far enough ahead, and yet close enough that she could smell the rotting, stagnant scent of death. The grotesque sounds that followed the shocked screams … they were the sounds that nightmares were made of. Sasha ran back to the giant opening in the floor that had given way, her eyes widening as she took in the sight of her comrades impaled on various spikes - thick, wooden spikes; thin iron spikes; ragged spikes of glass. Jerry had been lucky; his head was severed clean. The others were still alive, though in various states of bleeding out from the wounds they'd endured.
The ground seemed to tremble, and Sasha tried to scramble backwards. She did not succeed; down she went, the tapered ends of the spikes coming closer at an alarming rate until suddenly --
"Get up, whirligirl!"
Gasping for breath, Sasha sat on the edge of her bed. The same.. the same thing. The same day. The same outcome? What was going on? Why were things changing? What was different? Why did they all die?
"Sasha! Whirligirl, do not make me come in there after you!"
"I'm coming!"
-----
Another path, another narrow corridor. Completely different; Sasha had used gentle persuasion to get the group this far, and they'd come along willingly. There was a door at the end of the corridor, and Robert opened it, turning over his shoulder to give Sasha a cheeky grin.
"Come on, doll. Stay behind me, okay?"
The door pushed inward; there was no immediate sign of any trap. With the cocky confidence that Robert seemed to exude, the giant man stepped into the room. Candace followed, then Syd and Jerry. Finally Clerise moved into the room; only then did Sasha follow. Okay, this was going well. They hadn't met a roadblock yet, that was good.
One feather, two feathers. Black as midnight. A light laugh that carried throughout the room as the door slammed shut. The whispering beat of wings, the blood-covered fingers that reached out and tore Robert's throat out. Blood sprayed from the severed artery as his breath bubbled, pink froth collecting at the corners of his mouth. Quickly, the shadowy figure danced to her next target; Clerise went down in a heap as bony fingers effectively snapped her neck. Sydney didn't have a moment to blink, a moment to move before the creature was upon her with a laugh. The beast dug pointed fingers into Syd's eyes and mouth, and with a harsh, wet sound her head had been removed from her neck. Candace and Jerry were gone in the next instant as the creature moved with precision, ripping out their throats much like she had to Robert; the duo sprawled on the ground, whistling breaths garbling up from the bloodied holes in their throats.
It moved towards Sasha next, reaching out with blood-blackened hands, closer and closer until --
"Get up, whirligirl!"
Again. Sasha shot up in bed, covering her ears with her hands. No, no. No, please no, not again. She couldn't, not again. They had all been bad dreams. Clerise was here, trying to get her to come to breakfast, right? She wouldn't say --
"Sasha! Whirligirl, do not make me come in there after you!"
Helpless to say no -- she could do it this time, she could save them all, she just knew it -- Sasha called out with a quivering voice.
"I'm coming!"
-----
It was her. She was the oddity here. She was the one that kept leading them to deaths that grew more and more gruesome. She was the reason they kept dying - things couldn't be explained any other way. She had toyed with fate, as it were, and now they were caught in this endless cycle of death and agony. There was only one way to break the cycle, and honestly it did not seem such a horrible fate. Death would be better than seeing her dear friends die again and again and again. It was simply too much to bear at this point.
"Go ahead without me. I'll only be a minute."
They were laughing as they moved into the decrepit old building they'd been ordered to explore. Sasha held back. She needed just a moment to regain her composure. After a brief time, Sasha went into the house; she led them to the same room as the last time, but instead of allowing the others to go in first, Sasha took the lead. The door slammed before the others could enter. She could hear them screaming for her, slamming their fists on the door. Jerry was frantic, but there was solace in the fact that her death came swiftly. Familiar claws wrapped around Sasha's neck, delivering a quick twist. She slowly, slowly crumpled --
"Get up, whirligirl!"
Sasha screamed.
((wc: 1412, give or take))
